DENVER — Community organizer Brian Loma remembers wearing his homemade “PRESS” helmet during the summer of 2020, when crowds filled downtown Denver streets to protest police brutality after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Those protests turned violent and led to several lawsuits and claims of more police brutality. Loma was involved in one of those lawsuits.

“I’m filming,” he recalled, describing the situation during one of the protests. “I have a camera. I don’t have a rock. I’m not here to damage anything. I’m filming.”

Loma alleges that at one point during a protest, he was burning sage and praying when he was attacked by Denver police.

“I started getting shot with pepper balls,” he said. “There wasn’t mass crowds. There wasn’t violent lines of people throwing water bottles or rocks or anything. It wasn’t with a massive group. I was there and I was praying.”

That account is part of a lawsuit settled by the City of Denver this week. Loma received a $135,000 payout to settle his claims from that night.

“You know, I’m not out there filming these events, participating, because I want a payout,” he told Denver7 Tuesday. “That’s not the point. The point is to have accountability, be the eyes and ears [of the public].”

Denver7 has followed the settlements between the City of Denver and protesters. Read our previous coverage below:

In total, the City of Denver has paid out more than $18 million in settlements related to the 2020 protests. Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis said the city needs to be more accountable, especially as it faces a $250 million budget shortfall.

“When we’re looking at an ask to furlough, to lay folks off, but we’re also paying out settlements and large sums, we have to ask ourselves — because we talk about this all the time — if budgets are moral documents, what does that say about our morality?” Lewis said on Tuesday.

Lewis believes a less punitive culture within the Denver Police Department, or better alternatives to address community needs, would mean fewer of these claims and lawsuits.

“There are a number of things that you can do where you could have less reliance on the police and more reliance on community organizations and community and solutions that are embedded in [and] deeply rooted in community care,” she said. “But I don’t think we do that.”

Former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen led the department during the 2020 protests. Denver7 Investigates asked him about the department’s actions leading to millions in payouts.

“A lot of these cases have gone on,” Pazen said. “They’ve been appealed. The city has won several of these cases, as well, which often doesn’t get talked about as much as it should.”

• Hear more from former Chief Pazen in the video player below

Denver7 Investigates talks with former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen ahead of ICE Out! protest

Pazen said it’s often agitators in the crowd that spark violence.

“Working with the community is the way to address these types of situations, but this is not a one-way street,” he said. “If you have organizers of peaceful protests that step up and get rid of agitators, you will have a peaceful, successful protest. When people start to cause damage, destruction, get involved in violence, then a police department has to respond. That is their duty in order to stop the violence.”

Denver PD declined to comment on the settlement payouts, but did respond to Denver7’s question about how the department has changed its crowd control policies since 2020. The department provided the following examples, but did not include further details:

• The elimination the use of 40 mm less lethal equipment for purposes of crowd control
• Modified the way officers are permitted to use pepper balls for purposes of crowd management
• Less lethal equipment training enhanced to help ensure appropriate use in crowd control settings and understanding of commands
• All officers have received additional training on crowd control response and rapid deployment vehicle tactics

After five years, Loma calls the wait for change “painstaking.”

“Reform does happen slowly, but sometimes it feels like we take two steps forward and take one step back,” he said. “Maybe there is reform happening, right? Maybe it does happen, but it’s a long, slow, arduous process.”